Friday, September 11, 2009

Takeover at Proton?

Updated, Sun 13/9: Someone's back at Proton! I broke fast with Syed Zainal, Proton's Group CEO the same day I did the link to Pasquale's scoop. It was the first time I'd sat down with the Proton boss. He spoke about Dr Mahathir's return - physically - to the Proton headquarters in Shah Alam after more than 4 years! This Syed didn't seem too perturbed with the takeover rumours. "I heard about it quite a while ago," he smiled.

Original post:

Another saga. Pasquale has a posting on a plan by Yasmin Holdings, which is led by one of Proton's pioneer execs Kisai Rahmat, to take over the national car corporation. Sexy, especially when the scheme is said to involve the corporate muscles of local auto giant Naza and the support of Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The market is also talking about the rekindling of an interest in Proton by billionaire Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary, who is also known to be close to the Tun.

I'm not repeating what Pasquale says about the "current bunch" running Proton. You'll have to click here to read the full posting.

MANILA (Dow Jones)--Mirzan Mahathir, the eldest son of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, has been elected to the board of San Miguel Corp.( SMCB.PH ), the Philippines' largest food and beverage conglomerate. The conglomerate, which is now diversifying into other industries, told the stock exchange Thursday that Mahathir was elected along with local businessmen Roberto Ongpin and Alexander Poblador to represent Q-Tech Alliance Holdings Inc. on San Miguel's board.

Q-Tech, an investment company, acquired a 19.9% stake in San Miguel from Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd. ( 2503.TO ). Japan-based Kirin earlier this year sold its stake in San Miguel to partially pay for shares of San Miguel Brewery Inc.( SMB.PH ) that it bought.

SMB handles the local brewery operations of the Philippine conglomerate.

-By Cris Larano, Dow Jones Newswires; 632-848-5051;

Is beer business haram?

cris.larano@dowjones.comClick here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's mostimportant business and market news, analysis and commentary:http://www.djnewsplus.com/access

Proton mgmnt run by a bunch of hypocrites? hahaha what a joke because it was worst when under TM. BTW one of the new GM is a well known Pak Lah gang. Who is he?? ask ppl at Proton who is going to perform Umrah at the same time with DSZ next week and a former EON strongman.

Hmmm.... sounds odd to me.After 20 years of protection and barriers from competition Proton is still uncompoteitve and and unable to gain any traction in the export market.Reason is simple: the cars are of poor quality and poor design.Also the auto industry globally is consolidating with even companies like GM restructuring.The Japanese, Korean and US companies are also developing hybrid engines and new technologies.Proton needs a solid international partner that can improve their design and quality - and then maybe Proton has a future.I can't see how this new bunch who only seem to have strong political connections can make the difference?

Since then, Malaysians say that PR's biggest strength is that it fights for democratic reforms (31 per cent), fights for transparency and is against corruption (29 per cent) and advocates fairness for all races ( 27per cent).

This finding is not surprising given that the Opposition have been calling for the rehabilitation of Malaysia's institutions, especially the judiciary and the police.

Pakatan Rakyat has also been at the forefront of the movement to abolish the Internal Security Act and a slew of other regressive legislation.

Broken down according to race, 65 per cent of those who think that PR's biggest strength is racial fairness are Malays, 24 per cent Chinese and 11 per cent Indians.

Some 59 per cent of those who felt that PR's main selling point was fight against transparency are Malays, 32 per cent Chinese and 9 per cent Indians.

About 63 per cent of those who believe that PR stands for democratic reforms are Malays, 26 per cent Chinese and 11 per cent Indians.

Nor Mohd Yakob told Syed Mokthar not to allow DRB to talk to Volkswagen, as he wants Volkswagen to tie up with Proton. Therefore it would be stabbing Syed Mokthar in the back if Naza is allowed to take over Proton. Furthermore DRB Hicom is already the distributor of Audi

DRB controls the distribution network of Proton so, whats the logic selling Proton to Naza? Naza was built on APs and now that AP rules might be tightend, NAZA wants another free ride.... if the government must sell it , then sell it to DRB or VW, better still.

1)Did you know that Dato Hanif still owns most of the AP for the chevy cars that are brought in to Malaysia NOW. The cars are brought in from CINA and not direct for the US. Why has the public been misled that the AP kings days were over and that DRB got all the APs to bring in the chevy cars????

2) Did you know that Hanif is a relative of KJ???. KJ is close to Anwar Ibrahim. Out of the blue, PKR are not very gung ho in fighting at the by election in Negeri Sembilan, the home state of KJ.

3) Did you know that Permaju Bhd, which is tipped to takeover the GM franchise here in Malaysia is a big funder of Anwar Ibrahim. Former commercial crime director Datuk Ramli Yusuff owns Permaju shares, and he got nothing bad to say about Anwar Ibrahim.

4)Naza cannot be trusted. When Bodowi was the PM, they dumped Tun Mahathir and got in bed with Kalimullah. Kali was also handling the PR for NAZA in order to take control of DRB Hicom.

5) Did you know that Naza is being sued in Singapore and have an on going police case in the UK for smuggling and under declaration?

Once again Proton has released it's quarterly results showing unaudited PAT of $64 million without clearly explaining what its OPERATING profit/loss is. Dr.M, without looking at it carefully, praised it.

In previous years operating profits have included huge Govt R&D grants of several hundred millions. Without these grants for cash flow, Proton may have completely sunk! In it's last AR Proton indicated it may receive some $80 million grants this year.

Ultimately, Proton is in the biz of making and selling cars, not receiving Govt grants, in the same way that MAS is in the biz of flying people and not making profits from fuel oil hedging!!

Salam, please do not 'politicise' Proton... The whole Proton (including Lotus) is doing fine right now, while under T Mahalel, Proton has a great pipeline of model but in the end those are only able to cater the petrolhead and luxury not so much for the common ppl. And sadly, those pipeline turn to be just a pipedream(what's up with the 100k Proton Supercar). Under DSZ, he does cater for the mass market and he really onto the current global situation of petrol economic car thus using 1.6l engine to power a big MPV.Turbocharging 1.6l in 2010. Global standard for now. He has a great model lineup that cater for mass market and hopefully we would be seeing Proton EV or atleast hybrid in near future. Quality and export has been in the up trend.

so please leave Proton alone, Naza should focus more on their Peugeot,Kia line up, be proud of AutoItalia and start doing property construction now.

Hoping DRB could take over Proton, start manufacturing of VW. And lastly, VW is now looking to do global part-sourcing based in Malaysia. Hope the company dealing with VW could give the same quality to Proton too. win-win.

Yasmin Holdings survives on "protected" govt business. For 15 years they have been a Proton subcontractor. They have the contract to rustproof all Proton cars. Those of you who have faced the 'exploding pimples' problem on your Proton car and the rust beneath the exploded pimple will know their quality. They also supply fingerprint equipment and software to the Police. Very big contract. They sell Petronas Dagangan products (engine oil) and also do pipeline work for Petronas. They have been succesful in a protected environment. If they take over Proton, will they give up the protected environment? Be prepared to pay.

Sure you know that the major share holder of proton is the Malaysian Govt. What is that mean? Yes, if proton make profits everyone here would also get a sort of indirect benefit from it, unless you are a foreigner. Are you?

i like how the star suddenly reported that proton was now in talks with another partner to form a strategic alliance. wah, like so terror all of a sudden. all this while they have only been good at that - talking...nothing ever materialised.

seems to me more like panas bontot nampaknya apabila terkeluar cerita proton under threat of a takeover. ha ha ha...

PROTON -- the brand name i never wist to associate. I bought Persona recently. Aiseyman, guna 2 minggu, engine sudah ada bunyi yg tak nyaman. Wish i never bought persona at the first place. Do whatever you want to Proton, i don't care. It does not have to do with nationalistic. it is pure business. Just like Mirzan and San Miguel. Haram or not, duit mesti dicari utk hidup. Damn to God.

anonymous said: "i like how the star suddenly reported that proton was now in talks with another partner to form a strategic alliance. wah, like so terror all of a sudden. all this while they have only been good at that - talking...nothing ever materialised."

true...all purely talk. this excuse has been used one too many times - dah basi dah. got another excuse eh proton, something we've all not heard before?

what happened to the china project to rebadge the gen2? indonesia sales ada bagus ke?why so quiet in thailand and australia these days?iran amacam?

best to offload proton to another party - local or foreign - who is keen to do real business and profit driven. at the current status, profit or otherwise, the top management still get paid their big bucks, bonuses and ex-gratia payments, etc.

too many little kingdoms in proton built throughout the 20 over years.

"Yasmin Holdings survives on "protected" govt business. For 15 years they have been a Proton subcontractor"

Not only proton vendors survived because there are policies that gave them a bit of priority in the decision making as compared to others but other types of business also enjoy that sort of protective elements as well (such as batik, budu, housing, sugar and flour business).

Same thing happens in the developed nations and regardless of which party heading them, a kind of prioritization and protectionism are being in practice and are very much accepted as a norm. Don't be fooled with what you referred as idealism. Bet you, that you will see more prioritization and protectionism even if any govt changed hand.

I think what is best for Proton should be what is best for the Malaysian public who really actually wants to buy a car which is of high quality at affordable price.

I think the Government should Sell 51% of Proton shares to VW if they can promise to help Proton to produce affordable cars of export quality for the Malaysian market without having the protection of the APs, tariffs etc. Maybe some German technological efficiency and first class quality management will teach our brothers in Proton a thing or two about selling good quality cars at affordable price.

Selling to Hicom or Naza would not bring much added value, just making some people rich, with Proton cars remaining pretty much the way it is.

The Naza bhoys are looking to use Kumpulan Jetson Bhd, to takeover Proton. The sameway DRB Hicom-Proton deal engineered by Tan Sri Yahya. BTW, we are very curious on why the Securities Commission has yet to investigate JETSON for stock manipulation. Reasons for such an investigation are as follows : 1) Why Did the Naza Bhoys make an offer to take Jetson private, when it only bought 50 per cent of Dato Teh's shareholding. Why didn't Naza Bhoys buy the whole amount from Dato Teh at 70 sen? 2)Naza Bhoys is now offering RM1 for the remaining shares in Jetson, up from the earler 70 sen a share offer, yet the shares are going up. Is the offer just a gimmick to push the share prices up, and make a tidy profit from the stock market? 3)Why hasnt the SC quried KUMPULAN JETSON BHD, on its share price movement? 4)Why are the JETSON directors buying Jetson shares in the open market, when the offer is only RM1, or about 50 per cent lower than its traded price of RM1.50. Do they know something we dont???

One of your commentor is really unhappy with Naza and by the sound of it I think he is a reporter. Or someone who has been grounded or told to do subbing. A rogue journalist, undoubtedly. There are many in the industry, old and new media alike. We need to flush them out, boss. I think I know who this particular one is.